This invention relates to a sealing device to secure confidentiality of facsimile receiving paper.
A device that seals receiving paper of documents sent by a facsimile apparatus to handle them as confidential documents has been widely known conventionally.
For example, in the Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 63-67072, a device which reads a discriminative pattern indicated on the leading part of receiving paper, switches transporting paths by distinguishing confidential documents from other documents and automatically receives in prepared envelopes is described.
On the other hand, in the Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 58-142664, a device which seals confidential documents by pasting them together in a stacked state so that the correspondence documents do not come out is disclosed.
In such conventional sealing devices, in a device which receives confidential documents in envelopes, a very complicated mechanism is required in order to automatically proceed the operation to open envelopes and insert receiving paper, and therefore, it is a disadvantage that such a device tends to cause troubles such as omission of inserting into envelopes. In addition, as receiving paper discharged from a receiver is inserted into an envelope in the size as it is, a very large envelope is required, and the device itself comes to be large in size as well.
On the other hand, in a device which pastes the discharged documents from a receiver together as they are, there is an inconvenience that the documents may be see-through from the back side, as thin paper is generally used for such receiving paper, and, in addition, it is a disadvantage of such device that the finished appearance is poor when receiving paper is pasted together in the discharged state. Therefore, in order to solve such inconveniences, it is very preferable to seal the receiving paper by overlaying and folding the facsimile receiving paper and envelope paper. In this case, in order to realize such procedure, a device that folds receiving paper and envelope paper, a device that cuts continuous envelope paper and a device that adheres the edges of the envelope paper by such a manner as compression bonding are required.
Moreover, in the aforementioned conventional sealing devices, although the purpose of all of them is the same as that of the invention in the point of preventing confidential documents from being read from outside, in these conventional devices, it has been a problem that the sealing devices have not been considered in connection with general facsimile receivers. In other words, in order to connect a general facsimile receiver to a sealing device, it is required that the receiving paper discharged from the receiver has to be securely sent into the sealing device side, but, conventionally, this point has not been sufficiently considered, and there has been such an inconvenience that the outlet of the receiver and the inlet of the sealing device tend to mutually dislocate while in use. It may also be considered to priorly manufacture a receiver and a sealing device in one unit, but it is a problem that no existing facsimile receivers can be used. Furthermore, in the aforementioned conventional sealing devices, even in the case that the length of receiving paper when received is different, they have been folded considering that the length of receiving paper is all the same conventionally. However, when a short receiving paper is folded in the same manner as a long receiving paper, both sides of folded receiving paper widely dislocate in the direction of the length, and they are transported in such state that the length of the folded upper side surface is shorter to be bias-folded paper. When the receiving paper succeedingly received is transported on the receiving paper in a bias-folded state, it may lead to an inconvenience that it sticks to the folded upper edge of the precedingly transported receiving paper and can not be securely stacked on the envelope paper.
Moreover, in the aforementioned conventional sealing devices, in the case that receiving paper longer than a specified length is sent from a sender's side, the receiving paper is so long that, even in the case of stopping the leading edge with a specified stopper, and folding, it can not be stacked with the envelope paper and the sealing comes to be impossible, which brings about another inconvenience.
It is hence a primary object of the invention to solve the disadvantages of conventional devices and to present an improved sealing device in which an inserting omission into an envelope and other errors do not occur, the entire structure is compact and the finishing of the sealed envelope has a superior appearance by folding the receiving paper together with the envelope to seal.
In addition, it is the other object of the invention to present an improved sealing device which can quickly seal the paper by simultaneously proceeding a series of steps such as folding the receiving paper in the case of folding it together with the envelope to seal, cutting, compression-bonding and adhering the edges.
Moreover, it is still other object of the invention to present an improved sealing device which, in the case of folding receiving paper exceeding a specified length, detects it and stops the steps of folding and sealing.
Hence, in order to solve the above objects, this invention comprises means for taking in receiving paper emitted from a facsimile receiver, first folding means for folding in double the taken-in receiving paper by the means, second folding means for folding the receiving paper and envelope paper simultaneously in such a state that the aforementioned folded receiving paper is stacked with the envelope paper, and means for sealing the receiving paper by adhering the edges of the envelope paper.
Other objects, compositions and operational effects of the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the invention.